Ads by Google Ads by Google

A full ASTCA service outage continues for Ofu and Olosega islands

ASTCA logo
Source: ASTCA media release

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA —  ASTCA crews have confirmed that the submarine fiber optic cable connecting Tutuila and Ofu has been literally broken, near Auasi. It will take time and money to fix that cable break, which happened during extraordinary rough seas about two weeks ago.

Normally, ASTCA can reroute traffic to Ofu through Ta'u island, which is served by a different subsea cable from Tutuila. And that is exactly what ASTCA did for a week, but on March 27, that secondary circuit also failed, and they suspect that the subsea cable linking Ta'u and Ofu has a break as well, due to rough conditions that have pushed boulders as large as refrigerators onto the beach in Ofu. Investigations continue.

At present, there is limited mobile phone service on Ofu/Olosega for residents who travel to parts of the island that have a good view of Ta'u Island. In order to ensure that critical communications to the Luanu'u is maintained during the Emergency Declaration related to the Coronavirus, ASTCA is air freighting specialized microwave equipment as soon as possible to establish a reliable wireless link from Ta'u to Ofu. We are not yet able to estimate when service will be restored with temporary or permanent solutions.

ASTCA thanks everyone for their patience, and especially the alia that has been transporting our crews back and forth to Ofu and Ta'u for the past few weeks while air transportation has been unavailable due to the Coronavirus response.